Mercy Corps CEO: The engine of real transformation is powered by opportunity and choice

Mercy Corps CEO: The engine of real transformation is powered by opportunity and choice

Mercy Corps CEO Neal Keny-Guyer on the use of cash(less) vouchers for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, posted by Visa Communication:

"Mercy Corps was among the first organizations that introduced a mobile wallet in Haiti...We set up an agent network and provided a cash voucher through the mobile phone. It enabled people to buy the food that they thought they needed, not what other people were going to ship in."

So I'm standing in a rural village and this 61-year old grandmother comes up to me with a big smile on her face, kind of toothless, and she shows me proudly how she's buying her food through a mobile wallet. And I thought, if we can make this happen in Haiti, at this time, we can make this happen anywhere.

"When you put opportunity and choice into the individual's hands, that creates dignity and it creates empowerment. And those are the engines of real transformation."

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